Chapter 8 — The Night Before Exam Day

“Not a normal person.” “Tomorrow he will come to the exam room to pick you up.” My whole body was cold. At this moment, from deep inside furnace No. 7 came a dull clicking sound. Duong Tue lowered his head to look at the kerosene barrel, his face suddenly changed. My aunt screamed with tears in her heart. "Run." The next second, the small yellow light at the mouth of the furnace went out. 10 The moment darkness swallowed furnace number 7, everyone's breathing became disturbed. Duong Tue shouted and turned on the ignition. As soon as that spark flashed, my aunt suddenly used all her strength and swung the iron chain towards her feet. The rusty chain hit the iron barrel. The iron barrel collapsed, and the dazzling liquid flowed out along the ground. My mother was shot all over her body, cowering in fear and risking her life. My father rushed forward like crazy, hugged my mother and rolled out. Duong Tue was tripped by the iron chain and the lighter fell out of his hand. The moment the fire hit the ground, white mist from the police fire extinguisher sprayed inside. In front of my eyes was all hazy white powder. In my ears, only shrill screams remained. Someone grabbed my shoulder and held me tightly in the car. But I saw Tham Chu move. He didn't even look at Duong Tue. Not even bothering to look at Ms. Tan who was falling to the ground. He grabbed his file bag tightly, turned and ran towards the broken wall to the north. I used my strength to push the car door open. "Tham Chu tried to run." The police officer next to him immediately chased after him. Tham Chu turned his head to look at me. His eyes in the night were terrifyingly bright. "Manh Chi, remember, you forced me." He finished speaking, but he put the file bag to his mouth, as if he wanted to bite something. My heart sank. There's more than just paper inside. If he breaks the citizen ID chip, entering the exam center tomorrow will be another layer of trouble. The moment he opened his mouth, Ha Vu Vi suddenly rushed out from behind the broken wall, hugging him tightly by the arm. "You're enough." Tham Chu was staggered by her touch, the file bag slipped from his hand and flew out. The wind picked up the exam notice, the white paper rolled twice on the weeds. I rushed forward to hold him tight. The palm of his hand was cut by a blade of grass, and blood immediately gushed out. But the exam notice is still there. Citizen identification card is still there. The temporary explanation paper that Ms. Tan stuffed in earlier is also still there. When I raised my head, Tham Chu had knocked Ha Vu Vi away and climbed over the ruined earth wall. The police chased them to the base of the wall, behind which was an old excavated soil pit that had been hollowed out. In the hole, weeds grow waist-high, and there are also a few abandoned drainage ditches. Tham Chu crawled into it, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone. Ha Vu Vi fell to the ground, her face wet with tears. She looked at me, her lips trembling. "I didn't know he would go to this extent." I didn't pay attention to her. From the mouth of the furnace came Duong Tue's desperate cry. She was pressed to the ground by the police, her hair was down, her mouth was still cursing. "He couldn't take the exam." "He shouldn't have lived until today." When my aunt was brought out, the iron chains were still locked on her ankles. She was as thin as a dry branch of firewood, her arms were full of old wounds on top of new wounds. But when she was carried by the ambulance stretcher over me, she still tried to reach out her arms. I grabbed her hand. Her palms were so rough that they didn't look like human skin. “Chi Chi.” She called out to me. Tears fell from my eyes. "Who are you?" She stared at my face, as if looking through me to see someone else. "Your mother's name is Lam Tri Ha." "I'm Lam Tri Thu." "Don't be afraid." "I have to take the exam." My throat choked. "But Tham Chu said, tomorrow someone will come to pick you up." My aunt's pupils suddenly shrank. She grabbed me tightly, her nails almost digging into my flesh and blood. "He

Are you back?" Before I could open my mouth, Duong Tue suddenly burst out laughing not far away. She was handcuffed, her face pressed against the mud floor, but she was laughing so much that her whole body was shaking. "Of course I'm home." "Do you think the fire eighteen years ago really burned him?" My father's face was as white as a sheet of paper. My mother also stopped crying. The police immediately asked who that person was. Duong Tue closed his mouth again. her mouth, just glaring at me. That look was like a poisonous snake. Before being helped into the ambulance, Ms. Tan was still asking me if I had put the documents away. I grabbed her document bag, nodded at her, her face was pale, but she still squeezed out a sentence. "Tomorrow, I'll take you to the exam center." Just as I was about to say it, my phone rang again. The sender's number was still on my mother. But my mother's phone was clearly in the hands of the police. The message had only one sentence. Before the first exam started, he was standing right behind you. In other words, someone had cloned the phone number.